Vegan pot pie

I very seldom make veggie curries. I can count the number of times I make a meat free curry on my one hand.

Firstly my mother is a full time veggie eater and well my dad when he fasts he wants the day to go by quickly. He is a very fussy eater when he is fasting. No soya products, no toasted cheese, no funny looking veggies, no rice, all he keeps asking for is dhal, potatoe curry and greenbeans but after eating that meal twice a week for just one month and he askes what else you got Bobby and I never have anything else…. I mean who keeps extra veggie food just laying around waiting to go bad???

My mother will eat any vegetarian dish I give her expect a curry. She is a funny Indian, no curries on her plate and she is happy.

When fasting days come around, I try to make something that everyone including me will enjoy and in this instance a vegan pot pie.

My dad was a bit sceptical to try it out, he though there was soya mince in it and he was giving himself heart burn for nothing. When he found out that there was in fact no soya he had to helpings.

I myself actually enjoyed this dish.

I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that it was made in one of my new pie dishes???

When I first saw the list of ingredients I was a bit scared. I was all for using Woolworths puff pastry, but geez when trying to un roll the pastry after it has been defrosted is a nightmare all on its own, everything gets stuck together and there are rips and tears and no amount of flouring the surface helps, sometimes I just give up and throw the roll away and start all over again, but then I came across Today’s puff pastry and it works like a bomb and no messy unrolling .

Ingredients for the filling:

1 x roll puff pastry, defrosted.

A little olive oil.

1 x onion, finely chopped.

1 x tsp ginger garlic paste.

1 x tsp dried basil.

1 x Tbsp soy sauce.

500g x button mushrooms, sliced.

8 x baby zucchinis, sliced.

250g x frozen peas.

Ingredients for the cashew cheese sauce:

1 x cup raw plain cashew nuts.

¼ x cup nutritional yeast.

½ x tsp ginger garlic paste.

1 x tbsp. lemon juice.

¼ x tsp salt.

¼ x tsp black pepper.

7 x tbsp. water.

Method for the sauce:

Pour everything into a blender and blitz till smooth.

Method for the filling:

Heat the oil in a pot.

Add the onions and saute till transparent.

Add in the ginger garlic paste, dried basil and soy sauce.

Mix to combine.

Add in the mushrooms, zucchini and peas.

Stir to mix.

Cover and cook till the zucchini in soft.

Remove the lid and cook uncovered till all the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in the cheese sauce.

Toss to mix so that everything is nicely coated.

Remove from the heat.

To assemble the pie.

Pour the filling into a greased pie dish.

Cover with the puff pastry, trimming any excess pieces that may hang over.

Brush the top with a little melted butter.

Make a small hole in the center of the pie to allow the steam to escape.

Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is golden and puffed up nicely.